Not to nitpick, but the the post title is incorrect. We don’t know what percent of the people who were stopped had Hispanic surnames. All we know is that out of those that were given citations, they were nearly all Hispanic. For all we know the police could have pulled over 150 white people as well but they all had valid drivers licenses so they weren’t issued citations and don’t appear in the data.

That’s not to say I disbelieve the notion that the Atherton police use racial profiling. I know that area well and I bet they do.

Great observation Nylund. Redwood City and East Palo Alto are less affluent and heavily hispanic towns bordering the very affluent Atherton. Even if the police weren’t profiling race, they are profiling driving skills and vehicle condition. Perhaps the conclusion is that people who commit some type of driving infraction AND are from a less affluent surrounding town are more likely to have warrants and license issues than the rich people in Atherton who can afford attorneys and fines.

It’s also scary that many of the violations (I didn’t check all of them) are for driving without a a valid license. I wouldn’t want to be on the road with folks who can’t qualify for a license or have had theirs revoked.

In this case, being a “criminal” usually means having an invalid driver’s license (violating VC 12500 being, by far, the most commonly given citation.) So yes, what I’m saying is that there’s a possibility that a poor Hispanic person is more likely to have an invalid driver’s license (or no license at all) than a rich white Athertonian. I can think of many reasons for that, mostly centered around the idea that a rich Athertonian can more likely hire the sort of lawyers that can prevent a license from getting suspended in the first place.

My brother (who is white) lived in Palo Alto and drove a shitty looking car and was constantly pulled over. I’m willing to bet that the cops are pulling over people driving old and damaged cars, and those people are more often Hispanic in that area.

Rest assured I’m very much understand the difference between race, ethnicity, and the role self-identification and social constructs play in both concepts. You’re point is a good one, and one I often make myself especially since my own family is such a crazy mix of different self-identifications when it comes to white/non-white and Hispanic/non-Hispanic. It was just sloppy and lazy writing.

I was a teen in adjacent Redwood City more than three decades ago. That town reminds me of the enclaves in Snow Crash. Their cops at least used to wear fashionable blazers. I’m only surprised that minorities ever drive through there! Most of us kids were scared to drive through Atherton. The borders were obvious because of the thick tree lines on all sides.

I’ve been stopped by the Atherton police. I was heading home around midnight after visiting a friend in Redwood City, and my van’s cooling system had failed on the way home, so I stopped by the side of the road to pour water into the radiator. Normally in a case like that I’d expect the police to ask if I needed any help. Nope - it’s “License and registration!” Because people in Atherton don’t have vans; vans belong to tradespeople, who should be long gone by midnight. (A mini-van would have been fine; it’s the correct social class.)

The south end of Redwood city is largely poor and Hispanic. And you don’t have to be a bad driver not to have a license; the usual reason for Hispanic people not to have licenses is that they don’t have their citizenship papers in order, but still need to drive. Back in the early 1990s, California’s Republican governor Pete Wilson decided it should be illegal to drive while speaking Spanish. The primary effect on safety is that, unlike citizens who need to learn to drive safely in order to get a license, non-citizens don’t need to learn safety.)